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Summary: Junius Williams recalls growing up in Richmond, Virginia, attending Amherst College, and joining the student group Students for Racial Equality. He remembers attending the March on Washington, organizing a civil rights conference at Mount Holyoke, and joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He also discusses traveling with other students to the Selma to Montgomery March, being arrested at the march with Worth Long, working as a community organizer with the Newark Community Union Project, and witnessing the riots in Newark, New Jersey, in 1967.

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Biographical History: Junius Williams was born in 1943 in Suffolk, Virginia, married Antoinette Ellis, and had four children. He attended Amherst College and Yale University, and worked as an attorney, musician, and educator. He was a civil rights activist and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

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Acquisition Note: The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.

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Existence and Location of Copies: Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).

The individuals documented in these collection items retain copyright and related rights to the use of their recorded and written testimonies and memories. They have granted the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution permission to provide access to their interviews and related materials for purposes that are consistent with each agency’s educational mission, such as publication and transmission, in whole or in part, on the Web. Their written permission is required for commercial, profit-making distribution, reproduction, or other use beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See our Legal Notices and Privacy and Publicity Rights for additional information and restrictions.

The American Folklife Center, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance.

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